A SELECTION OFQUOTES FOR DAILY MEDITATIONby Paul Levy

“The question is not to know what is the meaning of life, but what meaning I can give to my life” - 14th Dalai Lama

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” - Gandhi

“When sunlight falls on a crystal, lights of all colours of the rainbow appear; yet they have no substance that you can grasp. Likewise, all thoughts in their infinite variety are utterly without substance”- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.”- Shantideva

“Take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves.”- P.D. Stanhope

“When selfish happiness is the only goal in life, life soon becomes goalless.”- Romain Rolland

“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify!” - Henry David Thoreau

“And if their faults are fleeting and contingent, if living beings are by nature wholesome, it’s likewise senseless to resent them – as well be angry at the sky for having clouds!” - Shantideva

“One man dreams he lives a hundred years of happiness, but then he wakes. Another dreams an instant’s joy, but then he, likewise, wakes.” - Shantideva

“Hatred is the winter of the heart.” - Victor Hugo

“Love is the only thing that increases twofold every time it is shared.” - Albert Schweitzer

Should I stay in good health, I will use my strength to dedicate myself to spiritual practice.Should I fall ill, I will use my troubles to increase the compassion I feel for those who are suffering.Should I live long, I will use each moment to accomplish my own and others’ benefit.Should my life come to its end, I will make the best use of the moment of death to obtain the right rebirth for pursuing enlightenment. - Tibetan prayer

“For sentient beings, poor and destitute, may I become a treasure ever-plentiful, and lie before them closely in their reach, a varied source of all that they might need.” - Shantideva

“Spending all your life trying to achieve ordinary worldly goals would be like trying to net fish in a dry river-bed. Clearly understanding this, make a firm decision not to allow your life to pursue such a useless course.” - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“To cover all the earth with sheets of hide – where could such amounts of skin be found? But simply wrap some leather around your feet, and it’s as if the whole earth had been covered!” - Shantideva

“Today I climbed behind this excellent retreat place. I raised my head, looking up, and saw the cloudless sky. I thought of absolute space, free from limits. I then experienced a freedom without centre, without end, all biased views completely abandoned. I lowered my head to look in front of me, and saw the sun of this world. I thought of meditation luminous and unobscured. I then experienced a non-dual, empty clarity. All meditations that focus the mind completely abandoned.” - Shabkar

“Destroy a single being’s joy and you will work the ruin of yourself. But if the happiness of all is brought to nothing… What need is there to speak of this?” - Shantideva

“Just as clouds form, last for a while and then dissolve back into the empty sky, so deluded thoughts arise, remain for a while and then vanish in the voidness of mind; in reality nothing at all has happened.” - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“As long as space endures, and as long as sentient beings exist, may I, too, remain to dispel the misery of the world.” - Shantideva

“To expect happiness without giving up negative action is like holding your hand in a fire and hoping not to be burned.” - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche- Alain

“Those who are tormented by the summer heat long for the moonlight of autumn. And if not overcome by fear, it is because the thought has not crossed their minds that another hundred days of their life will have passed.” -Jetsun Milarepa

“What a relief it is for the burdened man who has long walked through the world of suffering to lay down his heavy and useless load.” - Longchen Rabjam

“If you allow your thoughts and feelings to arise and dissolve by themselves, they will pass through your mind in the same way as a bird flies through the sky, without leaving any trace.” - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good.” - Marcus Aurelius

“Anger, lust – these enemies of mine – are limbless and devoid of faculties. They have no bravery, no cleverness. How then have they made of me their slave?” - Shantideva

“If there is a remedy when trouble strikes, what reason is there for despondency? And if there is no help for it, what use is there in being sad?” - Shantideva

“How marvelous human society would be if everyone added his own wood to the fire instead of crying over the ashes!” - Alain

“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“A single flash of anger shatters good works gathered in a thousand ages.” - Shantideva

“I turned my head, looking south, and saw a pattern of rainbows. I thought of all phenomena at once both apparent and empty. I then experienced a non-dual, natural clarity. All nihilist and eternalist viewpoints completely abandoned.” - Shabkar

“She loved the rain as much as the sun. Her least thoughts had the cheery colours of lovely, hearty flowers, pleasing to the eye.”

“When one has a stone hut and a natural abundance of slate, water and firewood all the necessities are gathered. At this mountain, happiness and spiritual fulfilment come together; for those who meditate in such a place the sun of meditation and realization will dawn.” - Shabkar

“If you long for mountain solitudes under peaks wreathed in mist, in steep rocky cliffs there are natural caves; to live in such places will bring you immediate and ultimate joy.” - Kalden Gyatso

If you recognize the void nature of thoughts at the very moment they arise, they will dissolve. Attachment and hatred will never be able to disturb the mind. Deluded emotions will collapse by themselves. No negative actions will be accumulated, so no suffering will follow.” - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“What is not given is lost.” - Father Ceyrac

“No task is so big that it cannot be broken down into smaller, easier tasks.” - Buddhist saying

“If you’re afraid of your thoughts, you’re giving them power over you, because they seem so solid and real, so true.” - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

“It’s not the magnitude of the task that matters, it’s the magnitude of our courage.” - Matthieu Ricard

“Remember that there are two kinds of lunatic: those who don’t know that they must die, and those who have forgotten that they’re alive.” - Patrick Declerk

“The happiest man is he who has no trace of malice in his soul.” - Plato

“The hand and other limbs are many and distinct, but all are one – one body to be kept and guarded. Likewise, different beings in their joys and sorrows, are, like me, all one in wanting happiness.” - Shantideva